We are beginning to come to grips with the logic of cruising to and around Greenland. Spectacular and remote, this is one of the two most challenging environments on the planet for a yacht (the other being the Antarctic.Although we have spoken with a number of folks who have cruised Greenland, the couple who many consider to be the experts on the subject are normally based on Bermuda, but presently are visiting their cottage in Lunenberg. Hence our decision to stop at this lovely town.

John Harries and Phyllis Nickel have been cruising in high latitude environments for 17 years. With numerous trips to Greenland on their own, and as advisors to others, together with voyages to the northern islands of Norway and Iceland, they are a font of practical experience-based information (they can be contacted at info@morganscloud.com – their website is www.morganscloud.com ).We had spoken and e-mailed in the past when we were thinking about heading this way, but this was the first chance we have had to really zero in on the logic of cruising Greenland. Doing it face to face, with charts spread out, makes it easier to grasp the realities. Our goal is to understand what is required at the gut as well as the intellectual level. What follows paraphrases John’s and Phyllis’s comments as we try to synthesize their experience as it applies to ourselves.

To begin with, this is not an easy environment in which to voyage. The weather can deteriorate rapidly, it is in general cold, there can be significant quantities of ice, you only move in daylight, and the charts have many areas without soundings. Throw in the lack of the infrastructure found in most parts of this area, and when folks say you are on your own, they mean it. If you have a problem, you better be able to deal with it. Accidents, even a small one like falling out of the dinghy, can have fatal consequences.

The trip north will probably start in St. Anthony’s, on the extreme northwest tip of Newfoundland. From here John figures we have about 300 miles of travel in areas in which a vigilant watch for ice must be maintained. During the four hours or so of darkness he suggests heaving to as the bergy bits – small chunks of icebergs – do not show up on radar.

Above is a Canadian ice chart which John suggested we download. The numbers represent the quantity of bergs counted by satellite imaging. The magenta line with triangles is the limit of all known ice. If we were leaving on this chart (and it will thin a month from now) we would depart St. Anthony’s just before daybreak, so we’d clear the harbor with sunrise. We would aim to cut the southeast corner of the square with 19 in it, and then resume a direct course for Nuuk, Greenland, through squares 3 and 2.

If we maintained a cruise speed of 12 knots we could clear the corner of 19 and be into 3 by the time we needed to stop for the short period of darkness.

Without sails to back, Wind Horse will lie beam to the seas if stopped. This will require our use of the flopper stoppers we sometimes deploy at anchor. Or, we may hold station bow up or down sea, with one engine occasionally engaged. If the sea is calm, small pieces of berg will show up well on radar.

The weather tactic John recommends is to leave just after a front passes, when the high begins to establish itself. This brings calm, and equally important, good visibility (we do not want to be dealing with ice in the fog!). If we hold to our normal 11 knots cruising speed once clear of the initial bergs, we should stay with the high for the passage.

Bergs are easy to spot and avoid. Their offspring, bergy bits, less so. Bergy bits float down current from the parent bergs, so you stay upcurrent of the big guys. In Davis Straits,on the West side, while in the Labrador Current this usually means staying to the north of the bergs. On the east side of the Straits the current often flows opposite, so normally you stay to the south of the bergs (and in the middle of the Straits current could run in either direction).

White ice contrasts with dark sea water, but John cautions you have to be aware that some older ice is blue. The smaller bits do not show up well. However, you can usually spot a difference in the sea surface patterns – much like a shallow reef would cause – that gives warning.

The rest of the way to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland and an ice-free port, should be clear. Until we get within 50 miles of the coast, after which we will again have to keep vigilant lookout.

John suggested that the level of alertness required is similar to running the inside channels of British Columbia or Alaska with lots of debris in the water (although the damage from hitting a car sized piece of ice could be a lot worse than running over a log).

He told us that bergs come in "pulses". There will be periods when the glaciers are actively calving, and then they will go quiet. This affects the ice close to the glaciers. At sea, the pulses are caused by pack ice releasing trapped bergs.

The passage to Nuuk should take us four days.

Once in Nuuk what we do depends on sea ice which blocks access to the southern end of Greenland.

The image above is from Danish Ice Service, and shows the bottom of Greenland. The "egg code" has the tenths of sea covered with ice above, and the old-to-new ice relationship below. So, 8-9 would represent 80 to 90% coverage. Age of the ice relates to its hardness – it gets tougher with maturity (as do some humans) – and is mainly for ice breakers.

The maximum ice density John recommends for a well found yacht would be 30%, and this is not easy to deal with.

Satellite time is expensive, and the Danish Government have to buy their data from Canada. Note the "No Data" in the upper left corner and the line nearby. This represents where the satellite data (and budget) ends.

Obviously we are not getting anywhere near the Southern coast of Greenland with this chart. If this is still the situation a month from now, there is wonderful cruising around Nuuk. And to the north lies Disco Bay, another spectacular spot. The trip to Disco Bay represents two 15-hour days, all in daylight of course (perhaps with other stops along the way).

Anchoring on the West Coast of Greenland is less challenging than the East. With our big ROCNA anchor – which works well in rock – 325 feet (100m) of chain, the ability to add high modulus rope to the end of the chain, shorefasts (lines to shore) should not be required.

Shore fasts are a major consideration for us. We do carry a variety of high modulus rope for making fast to land, but this can be an arduous and risky business, something we are not totally comfortable with on a regular basis at our age in a hostile environment.

Then we have to decide which direction to head when the season is winding down. Our present thinking is Ireland, just 1200 miles from Cape Farwel. In a good year, we could work our way along the north side of the Azores high with a fair breeze the entire way.

However, John cautions about extratropical storms which in some seasons can track one after the other, covering huge swathes of ocean with gale to storm force winds. The compression gales between the Greenland high pressure dome (over the ice cap) and transitory depressions to the south are another consideration, albeit more localized (for lots more information on tropical to extratropical transitions and compression zone gales see Mariner’s Weather Handbook).

In favorable weather, with a bit of breeze behind us, and a little push from the current, we can make the passage to Ireland in just over four days. A slow trip would be five-and-a-half days. Assuming the extratropical storm systems are moving at 30 to 40 knots, we could probably leave on the tail of one and make it across before the second caught us. That’s a risk to be carefully weighed at the time (and of course, this would represent an abnormal season).

Bill Gray, the forecaster from Colorado who does the long range hurricane prognostications, is saying 2008 will be an active year. So, there could be more tropical to extratropical transitions impacting us. If the extratropical issue becomes a problem we will consider returning to the East Coast of the US – which might be attractive for other reasons as well.

Now the question of crew. Can two grandparents, now eligible to raid the treasury of Social Security so generously provided by the younger generation, get the job done without undue risks? Or, should we be taking crew?

John and Phyllis always take crew with them to the East Coast of Greenland. However there are some differences. For one, their very able Morgan’s Cloud is a sailboat (albeit with a protected cockpit) and it requires watch standing outside. Wind Horse allows us to stand watch inside. The East Coast of Greenland has more ice, difficult anchorages necessitating shore fasts, and often the need to stand anchor watch due to ice ingress (and we are not planning to do the East Coast).

If we take a third set of eyes and hands, then we have them with us from Newfoundland until we arrive in the UK or back in Canada.

On the other hand going alone limits where we can travel and how far we can push the the envelope. Of necessity, we will miss experiences we might otherwise have enjoyed.

One key to this decision is the speed of Wind Horse, which gives us the ability to limit night time exposure in ice-strewn waters, provides more options with where to stop, and reduces weather risks on passage. Equally important is watchstanding in a temperate environment. This is a lot less enervating than being exposed. Excellent sight lines forward from inside are also a help. And closer to shore, the active searchlight SONAR will be invaluable for working our way into uncharted anchorages.

Our decision at this point, not taken lightly, it to go it on our own. Subject to change of course.

Now that we’ve been through this process with John and Phyllis we are more comfortable with the concept of cruising in Greenland. We understand there are risks, but we feel for us, with Wind Horse beneath us, they are manageable.

And the rewards sound very enticing.

Post script:

We were curious about John’s and Phyllis’s experience with bottom paint wear and propeller damage and were encouraged to find out that, so far at least, they have not bent any props on ice. Of course their prop is on center and our two are outboard where they are more apt to be impacted. On bottom paint their experience is the same as ours. You will wear down the self polishing paints, but the undercoat seems to hold its own.